Apple Lays Roadblock Against Facebook's Web Trackers

Apple took a dig at Facebook today with a new feature in the Safari browser that'll prevent the social media giant from tracking your activities across the internet.

The upcoming feature targets Facebook-powered "Like," "Share" and comment plugins that can appear on third-party websites. You've probably encountered them as a button or widget on a webpage. Using one simply requires you to log into your Facebook account.

The only catch? In its effort to serve targeted ads, Facebook can use the plugins to also learn what sites you've been visiting. For instance, anytime you load a page with a "Like" button, Facebook will know.

"It turns out these fields can track you, whether you click on them or not," said Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi at the company's annual developer conference on Monday.

"So this year, we are shutting that down," he added. To do so, Apple is introducing a new privacy safeguard to Safari that'll activate when the browser encounters a social media-powered plugin. A window will pop up warning you about the website tracking, and ask whether you'd like it to stop.

It isn't entirely clear if Apple intends to crack down on all social media plugins, but during Monday's presentation the company showed the feature in action against a Facebook comment field.

So far, Facebook hasn't commented on the news. However, it isn't the first time Apple has taken a swipe at the social media giant's data collection policies. Earlier this year, the CEOs of both Apple and Facebook traded barbs over their respective business models and their impact on consumers' privacy.

During Monday's presentation, Apple also took aim at the practice of "fingerprinting" or how marketing firms can track your online activities by cataloging your computer's configuration. This can be done by analyzing the OS, the browser version, along with what font and plugins you've had installed to create a virtual fingerprint of your computer.

To stop the tracking, Apple is introducing a new feature in the next version of macOS, called Mojave, that'll limit what details marketing firms can collect from your online browsing.

"We're presenting web trackers with only a simplified system configuration," Federighi said. "We show them only built-in fonts, and legacy plugins are no longer supported, so they can't contribute to a fingerprint."

"As a result, your Mac will look more like everyone else's Mac and it will be dramatically difficult for data companies to uniquely identify your device and track you," he added.

The new privacy protections will arrive in the fall for Apple users when macOS Mojave and iOS 12 officially launch.

Last year, Apple's Safari browser also added an "intelligent tracking prevention" feature that can stop internet browser cookies from harvesting your data. This prompted some online advertisers to complain.